MEDICAL PRODUCTS SUPPLIERS CARTEL DID NOT SUCCEED IN CHALLENGING DECISION OF NOVOSIBIRSK OFAS
The 7th Arbitration Appeal Court supported the decision of the antimonopoly body on the anticompetitive agreement
Appeal Court in Tomsk supported the decision of Novosibirsk OFAS regarding a cartel dealing with supplies of medical equipment, products and other expandable materials.
In 2018, Novosibirsk OFAS found that “Favorit” Ltd., “Klatona” Ltd., “NovoMed” Ltd., “Legion Novosibirsk”, “InfoMed” Ltd., and a group of persons comprising “Medical systems” Ltd. and “Pharminter” Ltd. breached Clause 2 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” in the course of 187 e-auctions. The total proceeds of the cartel members reached 6.4 billion RUB.
The respondents disagreed with the decision of the antimonopoly body and filed a lawsuit. Novosibirsk Regional Arbitration Court and the 7th Arbitration Appeal Courtsupported the decision regarding the cartel, establishing that the companies were not single economic entity as they had claimed. The claimants also typically took part in the auctions in pairs and in most cases filed a single price bid, decreasing the contract prices by minimum.
Having considered the case materials, the respondents are imposed administrative fine totaling around 160 million RUB.
Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department Andrey Tenishev emphasized: “FAS estimates that supplies of drugs, medical products and equipment is one of the most cartelized in Russian Economy”.